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The last Macworld Expo I attended was in 2004. It was my first in San Francisco, as New York had previously been my beat. But even on the other side of the continent, it still felt familiar to me. It still felt like a Macworld Expo. The iPod was still fairly new, there was no iPhone, and people were there to hear about the Macintosh.

Macworld Conference and Expo is now a different beast, and by beast, I mean that little duck from Wonder Pets with the annoying voice.

Actually, that’s a bit harsh. Macworld was still fun this year. There were many great products to see and some wonderful people to meet. But it felt different. It felt like Queen with Paul Rodgers on lead vocals. It felt like Timothy Dalton as James Bond.

Opening With the Finale

The change could have happened anywhere between now and January 2004, but it was immediately obvious. At the beginning of Phil Schiller’s keynote (certainly a change there, but not necessarily relevant to the focus of the whole show), he basically said, and this is not a direct quote, “Well, we’re at Macworld, so what the hell…let’s talk about this Macintosh thing.” It’s like it was the night before the keynote, and Phil suddenly remembered, “Oh yeah, I’ve got to give a speech tomorrow. Crap. What to say…what to say…”

The iWork and iLife updates Phil showed us were pretty cool, and yeah, I’m a pretty big fan of John Fogerty. John Fogerty can make just about anything worth watching…except Grey’s Anatomy. For a brief moment, I thought John was going to appear onstage and lead us all in a rousing rendition of “Around the Bend,” “Bad Moon Rising,” or some other Macworld 2009 appropriate song…like “Eye of the Zombie,” maybe. But no, instead, we got Tony Bennett, who may be the only living singer older than John Fogerty. When Apple talks about the iPhone or iPod, they bring out young John Mayer, because the ladies dig him. When they discuss the Macintosh, they bring out a guy who, when I searched for a graphic of him, showed up on www.todaysseniorsnetwork.com in the top three results. Dude can still go, though, I’ll give him that, and I’ll certainly take him over John Mayer.

But okay, so Apple wants to shaft IDG with a keynote of minor press release material, at best. Fine. We get that Apple no longer needs the Expo. What I wasn’t expecting, though, is that so many of the exhibitors no longer need the Expo either, apparently.

Standing In for Macintosh Programs In Tonight’s Performance Will Be…

Even the night before, I was surprised at how many of the participants in the ShowStoppers event weren’t Macintosh companies. There were iPhone app developers and laptop bag manufacturers and iPod case manufacturers and mashed potatoes in a martini glass, but where were all the Macintosh software developers? I guess at the Expo, right?

Not really. Well, I mean, yes, of course there were quite a few, but the ratio of Mac developers to accessory manufacturers and iPhone app developers was unsettling. This wasn’t a Macworld Expo, it was a gadget expo. It was a consumer electronics exp…oh.

That feeling hung in the air throughout the show like all the garlic I ate at the Stinking Rose on Thursday evening. I talked to many developers about their plans for next year, and no one seemed thrilled about returning to a Macworld Expo without Apple. It’s understandable, I guess. I mean, who wants to go a party if Louie won’t be there?

Actually, I think Louie may be a better choice for next year’s keynote speaker than David Pogue, but I’ll address that at another time.

Anyway, one developer of iPod/iPhone cases told me representatives from CES were on the floor that day, trying to talk people out of Macworld Expo in 2010 and signing up for CES instead. I could almost picture them slinking around in black trench coats, twirling their waxed mustachios, enticing gadget accessory manufacturers with bags of money that have dollar symbols painted on the side. And sadly, it appears to be working. This developer admitted that, because of CES’s lower rates and higher volume of attendees, he’d probably take them up on that.

IDG’s going to be facing a lot of this in the coming months. Even this year, with Apple still around, I talked to many company reps on Tuesday who were about to split for Las Vegas. Quite a few of my meetings later in the week weren’t with my usual company contacts, but with someone else because my contacts were at CES. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for consumer electronics and gadget accessory companies to split their week accross two shows. If they’ve been looking for an excuse to quite one of them, this is it.

The Show (Floor) Must Go On

So, what will that leave us with for next year? I’d like to say a bigger ratio of Mac software developers who can’t move to CES, but even that doesn’t appear to be true. Many of them have stated they may just pull altogether, and aren’t biting on IDG’s deal offering companies who sign on now the ability pull after 90 days if they feel IDG’s not going to be able to pack the Moscone. In an effort to get this started, IDG held a Macworld Expo Town Hall to solicit ideas for Macworld 2010. It felt a bit more like an AA meeting than anything else—“Hi. My name’s Fred Dogcow, and this is my 12th Macworld Expo.” (Polite applause.)—but maybe that was the point. Some suggestions were obvious (get the show the hell out of January), some were absurd (Macworld Expo Texas?). We at Appletell had two pretty brilliant suggestions, we thought, but felt it best not to offer them at that time.

1. Booth babes.
2. Bring back Apple.

Even if our suggestions don’t fly, I believe there will be a Macworld Expo next year. Granted, I also believed eating a bowl full of heated garlic and oil wouldn’t make my stomach perform Cirque du Soleil style acrobatics the next day, so what do I know?

Throughout this year, we’ll undoubtedly be talking quite a bit about Macworld Expo. There’s going to be plenty of change—there has to be plenty of change—and I’m curious to see how Mac users and developers are able to drive that. Will the show return to the halcyon days of the Macintosh die-hards, or will it be turned over to a new generation of earbud wearing Apple fanboys? I guess we have a year to figure that out. All I know for certain is that wherever Macworld Expo ends up, just like Louie, and with apologies to The State, I’ll be there to “... dip my balls in it.”